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If true, very distressing news for all of us!!!!

As some of you know, about three years ago BP Castrol TWS Motorsport was discontinued and replaced with a formulation dubbed Castrol TWS Edge (Professional). Although initially upsetting, according to my research the two were similar, so I moved on.

I've been using Castrol TWS Motorsport and then TWS Edge Professional on all my BMWs since I acquired the Z8. Went to my local dealer yesterday (09/03/2014) to buy TWS oil for one of the cars (not the Z8) and the parts guy said that this was last of it. What????? Apparently, BMW and BP Castrol have parted ways and Shell will be providing BMW oils going forward. Shell, are you kidding me? I won't put their lousy fuel in my tank and now I have to trust them for the oil in my engine? WTF, is BMW thinking. Obviously, now I'm really upset.

I just had an oil/filter service on my Z8 last week and I told the service rep that I wanted the OEM recommended oil. It didn't even occur to me to check if it was the Castrol. I'm gonna check my invoice right now to see if it is specified. Thanks for the heads up.

For the SF Bay Area owners, Peter Pan is still using Castrol products at its shop.

Ed, if you're doing coolant service consider a new radiator and coolant tank. Visual check doesn't help and they tend to give up at the most inopportune time. Also, we recently had a report of an owner whose fan clutch "exploded," with the fan shredding a few hoses, putting a big dent on the hood and taking out the radiator.

Regarding the oil, looks like many places still have it. My question is, for how long and then what?????

Point well taken on the long-term outlook of Castrol, and I am counting on other makes propping up demand for its engine oil products. With the coolant now changed, I missed out on the preventative care of the radiator this time. The overflow tank was replaced with the hoses in 2011. I never heard of a clutch cooling fan letting go before, but I can check the play on mine and ask Matt at PP for advice.

The incident //MBlitz and Macfly are referring to was the result of an apparent fan clutch failure. Unfortunately it was during an acceleration to pass a car when the failure occurred so it was an energetic disassembly (read explosion). The resulting chaos under the hood translated into damage to the following components, all of which required replacement: Fan, Fan clutch, water pump, high and low pressure power steering hoses, radiator, upper radiator hose, hood insulation blanket, and worst of all...the hood. That's a rough synopsis of the results.
Bottom Line: Check your fan clutch! I'm not sure there is a reliable way to check the fan clutch unless you're clutch is already in poor condition.

One quick note on the radiator...there was little damage to the radiator from the fan explosion itself. The reason the radiator needed to be replaced was when the fan hit the upper radiator hose, there wasn't enough inertia to cut all the way through the hose so the upper radiator hose nipple took the brunt of the impact causing the plastic nipple to crack. For those who haven't seen it, the radiator is all metal EXCEPT for the left and right sides which are plastic. These plastic sides run the height of the radiator on the left where the upper hose nipple is and on the right where the lower hose nipple is. The plastic parts on the radiator are very thick and did not appear to be deteriorated from age in any way. It required a lot of torque to even make the cracked hose nipple to become visible.

Thank you for explaining the circumstances of the clutch fan failure. When hot, I often hear my fan engage at slower driving speeds then disengage under acceleration. Sounds like your old unit failed at the worse possible time while trying to overtake another vehicle.

FWIW, with the ignition key in my pocket I checked for excessive play in the clutch fan bearing and for a noisy bearing while spinning the fan. That all checked out. Any other ideas on checking the clutch fan assembly? Another line item for the long-term maintenance master plan?

Interestingly, I gave my fan a cursory spin check about 2 months before this happened and didn't notice any anomalies. I did not give it as good a check as it sounds like you did, but I didn't have any real reason to check it. I'm sure there has to be a good test of some sort, but I don't know what that might be, hence my comment about a reliable test. Someone here probably have some suggestions.
I was concerned about how I was going to post this because it could simply be a one-off failure or one of those rare instances and I didn't want to get everyone thinking it's an imminent failure. Then again, it could be living in Phoenix with all the heat over 13 years that might have attributed to the failure. There's no way of knowing so it could very well be an item for the maintenance master plan. If so, I guess my clock started at zero this month. Not the best way to restart the clock, I assure you.

Dirk, I'm not sure if its their California formula or something that's nationwide, but anytime I'd put Shell fuel in my BMWs (and only BMWs for some reason) for an extended period of time my garage would start to smell like rotten eggs. I remember the first time it happened, the BMW service guy told me to switch to Chevron and, magically, smell gone. Since then, only Chevron gas.

I also remember reading about excessive carbon build-up with Shell gas; again, it may be only their California formula.

Any other ideas on checking the clutch fan assembly? Another line item for the long-term maintenance master plan?

Ed, if you do some Internet research you'll find that the exploding fan clutch is not very common, but happens more than you (and I) would think. It's a $100 piece and takes about five minutes to replace. I say, why take a chance on 10+ year-old part?

I have much greater awareness now of the clutch fan, and clearly the risk of failure outweighs the nominal costs of a new unit . As with other engine systems, the M5 forum had a thread on this topic too. I don't plan on performing the newspaper "test", but I will continue to listen and feel for the clutch fan engagement and release as I accelerate through the gears.

BMW has been associated with Castrol forever, but money changes most relationships. The only gasoline I will use is Chevron, unless I can't get it, and then it's Shell Gold. We had a story on Top Tier gasolines a few years ago; all of the top brands are fine. Chevron has Techron, which seems to work to keep the intake valves free (or more free) of carbon—another reason to love pre-direct-injection engines (unintended consequences: No cleanser in the airstream for youuuuu!).

As long as Red Line continues to make slippery synthetics, I won't care who becomes BMW's "petroleum partner."